Always on Venture Summit
This week I went to my first Venture Summit with Always on. It was held at the Ritz Carlton at Half Moon Bay. The summit was a great experience. First, there was a cocktail opening where there was a lot if mingling and passing out of business cards. I think it was easiest to network at this time, it seems like with a drink in hand, everyone could breathe a bit easier. I met a couple of people from Israel, who were very nice, and some people who worked for Always on and were hosting the summit. It was nice to talk to everyone and hear everyone's interesting ideas and what brought time to the conference. There was a diverse skill set of people from bankers, to CEO's, to lawyers, and a handful of venture capitalists.
The presentations the next day were actually pretty interesting to hear, but a lot of the same information did present itself...The effects of the economy on startups. So, ironically, it's supposedly a great time to start a business, but the liquidity to start a business is scarce. Apparently, for many of the venture capitalists the companies they have invested it are doing well. There is just one small problem. No one has the liquidity or faith in the market to buy the businesses from the VC's, and going public on Wall street is just not a viable option anymore. So what then happens is that the venture capitalists cannot free up their money to make any new investments, leaving the chance for start ups to be funded...a vague memory.
Stunting the growths of startups is in my opinion just about the worse thing that could happen. It's frustrating to see the government putting billions of dollars to band-aid up large corporations when instead they could put the money towards the planting of new seeds and new future possibilities. My hope is that people will get tired of putting their money into the downward roulette of stocks and start investing to grow startups. A girl can just hope, can't she? :-)
The presentations the next day were actually pretty interesting to hear, but a lot of the same information did present itself...The effects of the economy on startups. So, ironically, it's supposedly a great time to start a business, but the liquidity to start a business is scarce. Apparently, for many of the venture capitalists the companies they have invested it are doing well. There is just one small problem. No one has the liquidity or faith in the market to buy the businesses from the VC's, and going public on Wall street is just not a viable option anymore. So what then happens is that the venture capitalists cannot free up their money to make any new investments, leaving the chance for start ups to be funded...a vague memory.
Stunting the growths of startups is in my opinion just about the worse thing that could happen. It's frustrating to see the government putting billions of dollars to band-aid up large corporations when instead they could put the money towards the planting of new seeds and new future possibilities. My hope is that people will get tired of putting their money into the downward roulette of stocks and start investing to grow startups. A girl can just hope, can't she? :-)
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